Cards secure third place with 14-4 victory over M’town; Cloverdale 10-runs Lower Lake
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FORT BRAGG >> Kelseyville High School’s softball team scored seven times in the top of the seventh inning to beat the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 15-11 in North Central League I softball action Wednesday in Fort Bragg.
The win secures fourth place in the league standings for the Knights (7-6 league, 8-11 overall), who are home Wednesday to play Upper Lake in their NCL I and regular-season finale.
Kelseyville’s late rally made a winner of AJ Wurm, who pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for the Knights. She struck out four and walked two while allowing four hits and four runs.
The Knights banged out 14 hits at the plate, including four doubles. Paelynn Beall (2-for-4, two RBIs), Jordyn Wurm (2-for-4, double, two RBIs), Vanessa Reyes (2-for-5, double, two RBIs), Taylor Wood (2-for-5, RBI) and Brooke Poff (2-for-4) led the way at the plate. AJ Wurm (1-for-2, double, RBI), Gabby Keyes (1-for-3, double, RBI). Quinn Seifert and Deez’Alchi Anderson also had hits.
No other details were reported.
Taylor Hawk went 3-for-4 with a RBI for Fort Bragg (2-12, 3-17). Nayelli Padilla was the losing pitcher.
Kelseyville will honor seniors Kat Wheelan and AJ Wurm during Wednesday’s game against Upper Lake. Two other seniors, Morgan Rogers and Mati Mateer, are no longer with the team.
In other NCL I action Tuesday:
Clear Lake 14, Middletown 4 (6 inn.)
At Middletown, Clear Lake clinched third place in the league standings with a six-inning victory over the Middletown Mustangs, who close out their season at 2-12 in league and 3-13 overall.
Clear Lake (9-5, 15-8) will learn Sunday what division it will be playing in as well as who, when and where it will be playing next week when the North Coast Section playoffs open.
As a Division 5 team by NCS classification, the Cardinals could end up as high as Division 3 or as low as Division 6 under the section’s competitive equity playoff system.
“I expect to be in 4 or 5,” Clear Lake head coach Scott Schaefers said when asked where he expects to end up. “I don’t see us jumping up two levels (to Division 3).”
Clear Lake wasted no time putting its final league game in the win column, staking winning pitcher Atiana Patino to an 11-0 lead before she had thrown her first pitch in the bottom of the first inning.
“We did what we needed to do,” Schaefers said. “We still have some stuff to work on in practice before the playoffs get here.”
The Cardinals pounded out 13 hits, three of them by freshman center fielder Amelie Davis, who went 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs. Ashlynn Cruz (2-for-2), Kam Cresto (1-for-3) and Lindee Bingham (1-for-3, triple) also knocked in two runs apiece. Patino helped her own cause by going 2-for-4 with a RBI while Cali Albaum went 2-for-3 with a RBI. Karsyn Greer and Anjoli Scott also had hits.
Patino allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits while striking out 10 and walking three. Included in her 10 strikeouts was No. 100 this season. The senior is also closing in on 300 career strikeouts.
No Middletown statistics were reported.
Cloverdale 18, Lower Lake 4 (5 inn.)
At Lower Lake, well, at least they had some baserunners this time.
Victims of a perfect game when they lost 14-0 to the Cloverdale Eagles and pitcher Camryn Bird on April 16 in Cloverdale, the Lower Lake Trojans were able to solve Bird a little bit on Tuesday, unfortunately they were looking at a 15-1 deficit when that time arrived.
Lower Lake (5-8, 6-11) picked up three runs in the bottom of the fourth against Bird, scoring on Crystal Pepper’s RBI groundout, a Jamiya Lee-Ayers RBI infield single and a Madelyn Garner RBI single.
While Bird set the Trojans down in order in the bottom of the first and retired Eden Sparks on a groundout to open the second, Ayers followed with a single and later scored on a Hailee McRae single for the team’s first run.
“We had a couple of errors on what should have been easy outs that hurt us (early on),” Lower Lake head coach Julie Jackson said. “We hit the ball against her (Bird) this time. We caused a little chaos in that one inning (three-run fourth) with our aggressive baserunning.”
While the Trojans had some success at the plate in their rematch with Bird, who threw more than 100 pitches in her four innings of work, the Eagles had their way with both of Lower Lake’s pitchers – starter Garner and reliever Pepper – all game.
Cloverdale (12-1, 17-3) scored four times in the top of the first, twice more in the second and three times in the third to go up 9-1. A six-run fourth pushed that lead to 15-1 before Lower Lake scored three times in the bottom half. The Eagles picked up an additional three insurance runs in the fifth before reliever Grace Rhodes set the Trojans down in order in the bottom half.
Rhodes, just a freshman, had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs while senior catcher Kaloni Brown went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three of Cloverdale’s doubles. Bird, Emmersyn Reasoner and Alyse Blasi added two hits apiece.
Bird struck out seven and walked two.
For Lower Lake, Lee-Ayers went 2-for-3 while McRae, Garner and Eden Sparks also had hits.
Garner allowed six runs (five earned) on five hits, walked five and struck out none in 1 2/3 innings. Pepper worked the final 3 1/3 innings, allowing 12 runs (seven earned).
Lower Lake closes out league play and its season Thursday in Upper Lake at 4 p.m.
